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&lt;p&gt;Recruiters and interviewers will often throw out questions that are designed to test a candidate&#39;s ability to think on their feet, and ask them to make a case for something they care about on the fly. In doing so, they&#39;re looking to assess how well you can make an impromptu presentation, and also to get a sense of how deeply you think about issues in the world around you.&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;With that in mind, when it comes to answering a question like &quot;what&#39;s your favorite invention?&quot;, you need to do more than simply come up with better reasons for justifying your choice than &quot;I think it&#39;s really cool&quot; or &quot;no-one had done it before.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;To get an idea of the kind of depth you could go into, consider the information in the video below from the &lt;em&gt;Wall Street Journal.&#160;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While the subject matter may seem kind of dry on first glance—the history of global shipping—it&#39;s more or less a case study in how to build a compelling narrative out of something that most of us take for granted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In fact, if nothing else, I&#39;d recommend watching it just to absorb the information as a primer for the next time you&#39;re asked about an invention or world-shaping technology in an interview. Sure, the smartphone you&#39;ll undoubtedly have on you at the interview has changed the world, but interviewers have heard that one a million times. But a cogent, 4-minute response about how the humble shipping container has made the world we live in possible? That&#39;s something that will make almost anyone sit up and pay attention.&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;iframe width=&quot;560&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/0MUkgDIQdcM?rel=0&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allow=&quot;autoplay; encrypted-media&quot; allowfullscreen=&quot;&quot;&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;p.s. If you want to go &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt; deep on this subject, check out &lt;a href=&quot;https://medium.com/containers&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Containers&lt;/a&gt;, an 8-part podcast from Atlantic writer Alexis Madrigal, that was released in 2017.&lt;/p&gt;

Phil Stott

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